Cast, creator preview Fox's 'Ben and Kate' at TV Tour

HOLLYWOOD – The enthusiastic, unpredictable brother on the new Fox sitcom “Ben and Kate” is drawn from life. Creator Dana Fox’s life, to be exact. The series debuts Sept. 25. Its cast and creator previewed the season Monday (July 23) at the Summer TV Tour.

The premise: Sister is raising a daughter alone. Brother shows up to help.

“This character is based on my real brother, Ben Fox,” said Fox. “He was sort of this Ferris Bueller-type guy. Growing up, he got into so much trouble. He’s a really, really smart guy who intentionally does incredibly dumb things all the time, and would get us into so much trouble. And, you know, he got older and he met this amazing woman and they had two children together. And the thing that I noticed was that he was the world’s greatest father, and sort of thought, like, in a million years, if you had met my brother when he was younger, you would never think that he could have kept two children alive, much less actually kept them happy and well adjusted. I give a ton of credit to his wife, who’s a psychologist.”

In the series’ pilot/premiere, the fictional brother sometimes comes on a little too strong, too nutty. Fox says she and the show’s other writers are working hard to keep him modulated.

“We think a lot about that, and we’re really careful about that,” Fox said. “And there’s sort of like a little thing I’ll do sometimes where I’ll circle (a line in a script) and I’ll be like ‘idiot alert, idiot alert.’ We just are very careful to never make him cross the line, because his character works best when, if you’re a guy, you’re sort of watching him, going, ‘God, I wish I could do that stuff.’ And if you’re a woman, you’re like, ‘God, I kind of wish I had that guy in my life.’

“If he goes too far constantly and he becomes sort of annoying or too much or too crazy, you go, ‘Ah, I’m off the ride, no thank you.’ So it’s really been about keeping him grounded and asking ourselves at every turn, what would a real human being do? Because he’s a real human being and he doesn’t think a lot before he jumps, but he usually has a totally bizarre logic to all of his behavior that, at the end, he ends up being sort of the winner and it all makes sense and you sort of think, ‘Wow, he might be a genius.’ But then you look at this face and you’re like, ‘No, he’s not.’”

Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3429. Read more TV coverage at NOLA.com/tv. Follow him at twitter.com/davewalkertp.